Denise Levertov

Denise Levertov was born in Ilford, Essex, in England, on October 24, 1923. Her mother, Beatrice Adelaide, came from a North Wales mining village. Her father, Paul Levertoff, taught at Leipzig University until, as a

St. Peter and the Angel

by Denise Levertov (1923–97)

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16

Delivered out of raw continual pain,

smell of darkness, groans of those others

to whom he was chained—

unchained, and led

past the sleepers,

door after door silently opening—

out!

And along a long street's

majestic emptiness under the moon:

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